A Rapid Morphological Screening Procedure for Pea (Pisum sativum L.) under Drought Stress in Greenhouse Settings

Aims: This work proposes a rapid morphological screening procedure for peas grown under drought stress aiming to provide phenotypic evaluations for further research.
Materials and Methods: The plant yield and morphological changes of two widely grown pea cultivars (‘Aragorn’ and ‘Banner’) to drought stress was evaluated in this work. A total of eighty seeds of each pea variety were grown in a randomized completed block with four replicates in a greenhouse located in Moscow, ID. Plants were subjected to optimal irrigation (1400 ml as a control) and two treatments that reduced optimal irrigation rates by 40% (840 ml, moderate drought) and 60% (560 ml, severe drought) to induce drought stress. The test was repeated.
Results: Varieties significantly (P<0.05) differed in their response to water deficiency. The variety ‘Banner’ appeared to be the most drought tolerant than ‘Aragorn’ with high values at control, moderate and severe as (85.00±4.08) cm, (87.21±3.26) cm and (66.02±2.92) cm respectively for total plant height, while the values for total dry weight were (3.65±0.20) g, (2.18±0.42) g and (1.26±0.10) g respectively. Similarly, there were significant (P<0.001) differences among treatments on growth parameters, with highest values recorded at optimal irrigation (1400 ml) as (21.52±2.42) cm, (62.18±4.68) cm, (0.24±0.04) g, (2.86±0.38) g and (2.30±0.18) seeds/pod for root length, shoot height, root weight, shoot weight and number of seeds respectively. The growth parameters decreased with a decrease of irrigation.
Conclusion: As drought and stress conditions are expected to increase as global climate change progresses, breeding for drought is a promising area. Therefore, the variety ‘Banner’ has been identified as a potential parental material to be used in breeding for drought tolerance.